Comments (17)

There are about 135,000 cases of gestational diabetes in the United States every year. If you are one of these women, your placenta, which supports your baby's growth, produces hormones that make it more difficult to use the sugar in your blood for energy. The sugar begins to build up in your blood, and it is this increasing level of blood sugar that causes gestational diabetes.

Gestational diabetes starts after the 20th week of pregnancy when your baby is fully formed and already growing. The extra sugar in your blood goes through the placenta to the baby. Since your baby is getting more sugar than he needs, the baby gets fat."

I think that generally, if you are well controlled, you don't have as large of babies. Also, some of the "over-growth" probably occurs prior to the testing and diagnosis of GD when sugar levels are starting to rise, etc. and then there is a genetic component. Some people just have bigger babies. Like my mom for instance, her girls were 6 lbs but her boys were 9 lbs.

The excess sugar goes to the baby and creates excess fat deposits, particularly around the abdomen and neck.

Well controlled GD can definitely help keep growth in check, but levels could have been out of check before diagnosis and remember that we're only testing four datapoints a day. Hard to really know what our sugar levels are doing outside of those moments. And it's worth remembering that a 2011 study found that nonGD mommas had fastings between 60-80, 1-hours between 95-120, and 2-hours between 90-110, so even if we're under the targets our docs give, we likely do run slightly higher than nonGD mommas.

Ok maybe a weird question, is it only uncontrolled blood sugars that can make a baby big? Or can a non-GD mom who doesn't eat unbalanced meals, eats lots of fast food, fatty foods, sweets, etc, still cause a baby gain more weight than it should? Or does diet have nothing to do with the baby's size if you don't have GD?

Ok maybe a weird question, is it only uncontrolled blood sugars that can make...

Posted
02/25/2015

Ok maybe a weird question, is it only uncontrolled blood sugars that can make a baby big? Or can a non-GD mom who doesn't eat unbalanced meals, eats lots of fast food, fatty foods, sweets, etc, still cause a baby gain more weight than it should? Or does diet have nothing to do with the baby's size if you don't have GD?

My DD (dear daughter) was 9 lb 6 ounces and I did not have GD and I ate pretty good for the most part. She's just a very tall girl😀 always been in the 96% percentile.

My DD was 9 lb 6 ounces and I did not have GD and I ate pretty good for the...

Posted
02/25/2015

My DD was 9 lb 6 ounces and I did not have GD and I ate pretty good for the most part. She's just a very tall girl😀 always been in the 96% percentile.

Thanks this is exactly what I was wondering. With my first I didn't have GD either, I ate pretty well. Occassional burger and fries maybe once a week and I always took a healthy lunch to work and had a good, meaty breakfast sandwich on the way. She was 9lb 2 oz and 22in long! Somewhere around 98 percentile for height.

Thanks this is exactly what I was wondering. With my first I didn't have ...

Posted
02/25/2015

Thanks this is exactly what I was wondering. With my first I didn't have GD either, I ate pretty well. Occassional burger and fries maybe once a week and I always took a healthy lunch to work and had a good, meaty breakfast sandwich on the way. She was 9lb 2 oz and 22in long! Somewhere around 98 percentile for height.

Though my diabetic educator said having a big baby increases your risk for diabetes in general which I've never heard of or don't understand!

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